> reporter: brittani's brain injury was so severe much of her therapy was almost like a pre-school class. and so what do you do? you sit down, you do it with her until she's able to do it herself. it's - > reporter: is it like rewiring the brain? > absolutely.
> because their brain is just not the same brain that that used to be. > reporter: which means teaching a head trauma patient to do one simple task over and over again until it becomes reflexive. > reporter: doctor wright, a neuropsychologist, practices what's known as "cognitive behavioral therapy." > we believe with practice, practice, practice, the brain can heal. she had to have all those things done for her all over again. she had to have somebody take her to the bathroom. > there was both billboards, rewards, crimestopper's rewards.Ĭrying a lot. > reporter: police created a composite sketch and spread the word across the rio grande valley.
he had a long-sleeved shirt on, > reporter: and what does he look like? > either a dark caucasian man or a light hispanic with brown hair, kinda spiky. reporter: brittani's mom had actually seen the guy. > reporter: police didn't have to rely on just hard evidence, though. > reporter: did you do a dna test on her s - sort of boyfriend? > yes. > reporter: was he a potential suspect? > absolutely. he'd heard brittani was seeing someone, kind of a boyfriend. > so now morales' investigation went from the lab to the street. > reporter: brittani's attacker, basically, vanished into thin air.
> you'd have to figure that somebody that's done something in that extreme has done - done something like that before. there was duct tape.Īttacker had to be a repeat offender. > so once we were able to go inside, you could see it was pretty violent.
Justin hansen dateline full#
> reporter: inside the house, morales found a room full of evidence. so instead of going out a sliding glass door whether it was locked or unlocked, he jumps out of a dining room window, i mean, not through the screen, he jumps through the glass to get out. maybe, morales thought, when diane started screaming. > reporter: the pattern of blood at the scene indicated the attacker actually chased diane when she fled the house, but stopped for some reason. > i don't think he was - anticipating diane showing up. > reporter: morales believed the attack had just started when brittani's mom arrived. we started trying to figure out who was brittani hanging around with? who might be a suspect 'cause it really - at this point, we had no suspect at all so everybody is. > reporter: the brutal nature of the attack, did that tell you anything? i mean, this person seemed like they were full of rage. or there was something - there was more of a connection to there. That either knew brittani or knew somebody in the family. it seemed, to me at the time, that we're looking at somebody > reporter: did you get the sense that maybe this was a burglary in progress and brittani just happened to come home? or do you - did you feel like the perpetrator was someone that brittani knew? > this just seemed so personal. > reporter: morales said the fact brittani's purse and sunglasses were found right in the entryway led him to believe the attacker came up behind her as she entered the house. they were waiting on the condition of the victim, brittani, to see if she was going to survive or if she's gonna die. > when i got here, the crime van was already parked out front. > reporter: morales said brittani had been hit repeatedly with a shovel, so hard it crushed the left part of her skull. how - how brutal was this attack in this house? > it was very brutal. > reporter: you've seen a lot of murders in your career. albuquerque police detective jason morales was the lead investigator. Tried to grasp what happened to brittani, the police were trying to find out who did it.
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